San Jose startup Light Field Lab teamed up with the SETI Institute to demonstrate a prototype holographic display. In the surroundings of a secret laboratory, in the presence of actors in military costumes and scientists in chemical protection, journalists were shown a computer video with an alien from the waist up. “It was as if he were alive,” say the show’s participants, “if you didn’t come closer.” But the price of the issue was unpleasantly surprising – the cost of the displays will be a six-figure sum of US dollars.
Image source: Light Field Lab
Light Field Lab, as its name suggests, deals with so-called light field displays. In the simplest case, these are screens with overlays of millions or more Fresnel lenses – like on stereoscopic postcards from the past. The idea is that light from each pixel is directed towards the viewer at different angles, simulating reflections from objects in the scene. In life, we see our surroundings thanks to reflections of rays, and the effect of the light field allows us to make our perception of the volume of the virtual world, so to speak, natural without any tricks with the brain such as combining images for the left and right eyes.
Since in life light from even one point is reflected in different directions, light field displays require a significant excess of pixels. The way Light Field Lab imagines it, to create acceptable volume, the pixels must be three orders of magnitude larger than for a flat image. During the first closed demonstration, journalists noted that as they approached the 1 m2 display, the pixel structure of the virtual alien was visible better and better.
The SETI Institute, which has proposed the script for the show and is engaged in the search for alien life, intends to popularize its work in this way. In addition, hotels, casinos and large companies, as well as amusement parks, are interested in holographic displays. The company already has a number of concluded agreements for the supply of holographic displays, but is in no hurry to disclose the names of customers. In addition, the large diagonal displays that customers dream of have yet to be created, which could take up to five years.
«“We do have contracts for orders for goods that, as you will see, we will begin to deliver next year,” representatives of the developer said. “A lot of what we have been doing over the last two years is improving the manufacturing process and the assembly line.”
The holographic light field display with an area of 1 m2 presented to journalists will be characterized by a price in the “six figures.” But customers want more to satisfy their fantasies, and larger holographic displays are just around the corner.